1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a musical tone-generating apparatus and a musical tone-generating method for simultaneously generating a plurality of musical tones by using a plurality of musical tone-generating means, and a storage medium storing a program for executing the musical tone-generating method.
2. Prior Art
Tones of musical performance generated by a harmonic (polyphonic) musical instrument, such as a piano and an organ, or a musical composition formed of a plurality of musical instrument parts can be synthesized and reproduced by using musical tone-generating means (tone generator (TG)) having a plurality (multiplicity) of channels, such as a sound source LSI or software which implements a plurality of tone-generating channels by time sharing. However, the operating speed of semiconductors and the processing speed of computers (CPU""s) are inevitably limited, and hence the number of tone-generating channels which can be implemented by a single sound source LSI or software is also limited. Therefore, to reproduce or synthesize tones of musical performance generated e.g. by a piano or an orchestra, which has a great number of tones to be sounded, it is necessary to take a measure of arranging a plurality of sound source LSI""s or a measurer of additionally connecting a plurality of tone generators to the tone generator via an interface such as MIDI. The use of such a plurality of TG""s makes it possible to reduce the number of tones for simultaneous reproduction per TG, and at the same time maintain the largest possible number of tones that can be generated by the whole system. Musical tones can be assigned to the respective TG""s e.g. by a method of dividing the whole range of musical tones to be generated into a plurality of tone ranges and assigning the tone ranges to the respective TG""s. (This method is disclosed e.g. by U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,148).
In a conventional musical tone-generating apparatus employing the above method, each TG performs tone generation only when it receives a command to generate a musical tone within a tone range assigned thereto. However, in general, musical tones used in a musical composition, i.e. musical tones which the TG""s are instructed to generate tend to be more concentrated in some specific ones of the divided tone ranges (in the case of a piano, musical tones are more often generated by keys in a central area of the keyboard), and hence load is largely varied between the TG""s. As a result, a TG assigned with a tone range causing a heavy load thereon may not be capable of generating all designated musical tones.
Further, in the conventional tone-generating system, when a command for termination of tone generation is issued, generation of a corresponding one of musical tones being sounded is simply attenuated or damped. However, e.g. in an actual piano performance, the release of a key is accompanied by a unique sound peculiar to the releasing operation. More specifically, the unique sound may be a mechanical noise caused by a key or a damper, a resonance between such a mechanical noise and the whole piano or high-pitched sound strings having no dampers provided therefor, a chattering noise caused by contact between a damper and a string, or the like. Further, in a harpsichord performance, it is known that a predetermined key-off sound (more precisely, a key-off sound having a predetermined characteristic different from one key to another) is generated at each key release. These sounds constitute a characteristic feature of a piano or a harpsichord. Therefore, in order to reproduce a more vivid tone color, it is necessary to take generation of the accompanying sounds or noises into consideration.
It is a first object of the invention to provide a musical tone-generating apparatus and a musical tone-generating method which make it possible to distribute tone generation loads evenly between a plurality of musical tone-generating sections, even if musical tones designated for tone generation are more concentrated in some specific tone ranges, to thereby reduce a tone generation load applied to each of the musical tone-generating sections, and a storage medium storing a program for executing the musical tone-generating method.
It is a second object of the invention to provide a musical tone-generating apparatus and a musical tone-generating method which are capable of generating tones caused by operations on a musical instrument for termination of tone generation, to thereby reproduce more real performance tones to be generated by the musical instrument, and a storage medium storing a program for executing the musical tone-generating method.
To attain the first object, according to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a musical tone-generating apparatus comprising a performance information supply section that supplies performance information simultaneously instructing a start of generation of musical tones corresponding to each of a plurality of tone pitches, a musical tone-generating section group comprising a plurality of musical tone-generating sections, each of which generates musical tones of at least one pitch name independently of each other, all the plurality of musical tone-generating sections being capable of generating musical tones of all pitch names, an assignment section that assigns a musical tone of each tone pitch indicated by the performance information supplied by the performance information supply section to a corresponding one of the musical tone-generating sections of the musical tone-generating section group according to a pitch name corresponding to the each tone pitch, and a control section that controls the musical tone-generating sections such that the musical tone of the each tone is generated by the corresponding one of the musical tone-generating sections.
Preferably, the musical tone-generating apparatus includes a musical tone output section that adds together outputs from the musical tone-generating sections, and delivers a sum of the outputs.
More preferably, the musical tone-generating sections are connected in series with each other, whereby the musical tone output section sequentially adds together the outputs from the musical tone-generating sections, and delivers the sum of the outputs.
To attain the second object, according to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a musical tone-generating apparatus comprising a performance information supply section that supplies performance information including at least key-on information and key-off information, a musical tone-generating section that is responsive to supply of the key-on information from the performance information supply section, for generating a main musical tone having a tone pitch and at least one other characteristic indicated by the key-on information, and is responsive to supply of the key-off information from the performance information supply section, for attenuating a main musical tone having a tone pitch indicated by the key-off information and being generated and for generating a key-off sound, a determination section that determines at least one characteristic of the key-off sound to be generated, based on at least one characteristic of the main musical tone, and a control section that controls the musical tone-generating section such that the key-off sound is generated by the musical tone-generating section according to the at least one characteristic of the key-off sound determined by the determination section.
Preferably, the musical tone-generating apparatus includes a detecting section that detects at least one parameter related to the at least one characteristic of the key-off sound to be generated, and the determination section determines the at least one characteristic of the key-off sound to be generated, based on the detected at least one parameter.
More preferably, the detecting section detects the at least one characteristic of the main musical tone of the tone pitch indicated by the key-off information when the key-off information is supplied from the performance information supply section.
Preferably, the determination section sets the at least one characteristic of the key-off sound to be generated to at least one characteristic corresponding to the tone pitch indicated by the key-off information, when the key-off information is supplied from the performance information supply section.
More preferably, the detecting section includes a time measurement section that measures, as the at least one parameter, time elapsed from the supply of the key-on information to the supply of the key-off information.
Alternatively, the musical tone-generating section includes a main musical tone-generating section that generates the main musical tone, and the detecting section includes a main musical tone characteristic-detecting section that detects, as the at least one parameter, at least one of an output level and an envelope characteristic of the main musical tone-generating section when the key-off information is supplied from the performance information supply section.
Alternatively, the musical-tone generating section includes a main musical tone-generating section that generates the main musical tone, and a key-off sound-generating section that generates the key-off sound, the detecting section including a time measurement section that measures, as one of the at least one parameter, time elapsed from the supply of the key-on information to the supply of the key-off information, and a main musical tone characteristic-detecting section that detects, as another of the at least one parameter, at least one of an output level and an envelope characteristic of the main musical tone-generating section when the key-off information is supplied, the determination section determining the at least one characteristic of the key-off sound to be generated, based on at least one of an output from the time measurement section and an output from the main musical tone characteristic-detecting section.
Further preferably, the determination section determines the at least one characteristic of the key-off sound to be generated, based on the output from the main musical tone characteristic-detecting section, when the time measured by the time measurement section is longer than a predetermined time period.
Further preferably, the determination section includes a selecting device that selects one of the output from the time measurement section and the output from the main musical tone characteristic-detecting section, the determination section determining the at least one characteristic of the key-off sound to be generated, based on the selected output.
To attain the first object, according to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided a storage medium storing a program that can be executed by a computer, the program comprising a supply module that causes a performance information supply section to supply performance information simultaneously instructing a start of generation of musical tones corresponding to each of a plurality of tone pitches, a musical tone-generating section module that causes musical tones of all pitch names to be generated by a plurality of musical tone-generating sections, each of which generates musical tones of at least one pitch name independently of each other, an assignment module that assigns a musical tone of each tone pitch indicated by the supplied performance information to a corresponding one of the musical tone-generating sections according to a pitch name corresponding to the each tone pitch, and a control module that controls the musical tone-generating sections such that the musical tone of the each tone is generated by the corresponding one of the musical tone-generating sections.
To attain the second object, according to a fourth aspect of the invention, there is provided a storage medium storing a program that can be executed by a computer, the program comprising a supply module that causes a performance information supply section to supply performance information including at least key-on information and key-off information, a musical tone-generating module that is responsive to supply of the key-on information from the performance information supply section, for generating a main musical tone having a tone pitch and at least one other characteristic indicated by the key-on information, and is responsive to supply of the key-off information from the performance information supply section, for attenuating a main musical tone having a tone pitch indicated by the key-off information and being generated and for generating a key-off sound, a determination module that determines at least one characteristic of the key-off sound to be generated, based on at least one characteristic of the main musical tone, and a control module that controls the musical tone-generating module such that the key-off sound is generated by the musical tone-generating module according to the at least one characteristic of the key-off sound determined by the determination module.
To attain the first object, according to a fifth aspect of the invention, there is provided a musical tone-generating method comprising the steps of causing a performance information supply section to supply performance information simultaneously instructing a start of generation of musical tones corresponding to each of a plurality of tone pitches, causing musical tones of all pitch names to be generated by a plurality of musical tone-generating sections, each of which generates musical tones of at least one pitch name independently of each other, assigning a musical tone of each tone pitch indicated by the supplied performance information to a corresponding one of the musical tone-generating sections according to a pitch name corresponding to the each tone pitch, and controlling the musical tone-generating sections such that the musical tone of the each tone is generated by the corresponding one of the musical tone-generating sections.
To attain the second object, according to a sixth aspect of the invention, there is provided a musical tone-generating method comprising the steps of causing a performance information supply section to supply performance information including at least key-on information and key-off information, generating a main musical tone having a tone pitch and at least one other characteristic indicated by the key-on information in response to supply of the key-on information from the performance information supply section, generating a key-off sound while attenuating a main musical tone having a tone pitch indicated by the key-off information and being generated, in response to supply of the key-off information from the performance information supply section, determining at least one characteristic of the key-off sound to be generated, based on at least one characteristic of the main musical tone, and controlling the key-off sound-generating step such that the key-off sound is generated according to the determined at least one characteristic of the key-off sound.
The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.